Originally posted by: Jack0fAll

Hi all,

I've a development server that is down. It was patched and rebooted but will not come up thereafter. I'm thinking of restoring it using its latest mksysb, however what confuses me is that do I need to allocate an LPP source for it or can I just create a SPOT from the mksysb image and kick-off the bos_inst. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Originally posted by: AncientAIXer

Start with https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/ssw_aix_72/com.ibm.aix.install/basic_mksysb_image.htm

The spot has to be at the same AIX level, so if you already have one, you can use it.  If not, create from mksysb.  lpp_source not necessary.

Originally posted by: Jack0fAll

Thank you!

Looking at the "smitty nim_bosinst" panel for a mksysb restore, I see that the LPP_SOURCE field isn't asterisk'd meaning it is not required.
IMO, the documentation does not clearly state that a mksysb image restore only requires a SPOT and the LPP_SOURCE is optional.
Based on this, in which scenario will one specify the LPP_SOURCE when restoring a system from its own mksysb image?

Originally posted by: AncientAIXer

From what I do know (hopefully correctly), the SPOT is used as the boot image, and the lpp_source contains the lpp filesets so that they can be installed on a running server.  Normally, the mksysb should have everything needed to be restored on the previous hardware.  If the mksysb is being restored on different hardware and the mksysb does not contain all device driver filesets, it may not restore properly.  In that case, I would think that the lpp_source would be needed to install the missing device driver filesets.

Originally posted by: Jack0fAll

Using the lpp_source in this scenario, mksysb image is restored onto a system different from the one on which it was created, makes sense. The filesets in the lpp_source will get installed especially if the hardware varies between the source of the mksysb and its target. Thank you very much for this awesome tech tip, it's greatly appreciated.